Belvedere Estate - History

History

It is believed that the roots of Belvedere House lie in the late 1760s from approximately the time when Mir Jafar Ali Khan, the Nawab of the province of Bengal was compelled by the British East India Company to abdicate his throne at Murshidabad to Qasim Khan in 1760. Mir Jafar moved to Calcutta where he is thought to have owned a large court house, and settled within the safety of English East India Company fortifications at Alipore. It is believed that while he was in Calcutta, he built many buildings in the area and gifted Belvedere House to Warren Hastings.

After the Battle of Buxar in 1764 Hastings left for England. Two governors, Verelst and Cartier occupied the Belvedere during the period when Hastings was away in England. Hastings returned to Calcutta as Governor in 1772 and to his garden house, the Belvedere with a certain Baroness Inhoff by his side.

The grounds of Belvedere Estate were witness to a duel between Warren Hastings and his legal officer, Philip Francis. The duel may have been over the Baroness Inhoff who was staying with Hastings in Belvedere House, although an Australian historian, Arthur Staples, is inclined to conclude that the duel was the outcome of political conflict between the two.

There is not much clarity around this period of the history of Belvedere Estate and it is believed that Hastings finally sold Belvedere House to a Major Tolly in the 1780s for the sum of Rs.60,000. Major Tolly died in 1784 and his family sold the property in 1802. From 1854 to 1911 the Belvedere housed a number of Lieutenant Governors, starting with Halliday, till the British India capital moved to Delhi.

Charles Robert Prinsep (1790–1864), a Cambridge graduate and Lincoln's Inn barrister from a family with long associations to India, lived at Belvedere Estate for a time. (He later named family property in Australia 'Belvedere' after the estate.) Prinsep served as standing counsel to the East India Company and then as the Judge Advocate General of India during the time when he resided at Belvedere. He was the brother of Henry Thoby Prinsep, a merchant and civil servant in India.

After this it was turned into the official residence of the Viceroy of India.

There is talk of unconfirmed supernatural sightings in the house as well as the grounds, with rumours of the ballroom being lit up and carriages drawing up in the driveway.

The famous American actor Tom Cruise lived in Belvedere House when shooting portions of the feature film Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. He is quoted as saying, "I couldn't get out of there soon enough - couldn't stand the smell".

The complex now includes within it, two housing colonies built by the government, one being for National Library of India employees, and the other for central government employees. The building is under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India.